Fujimori Allies Seize Crusading Tv Station

September 21, 1997|By New York Times News Service.

BUENOS AIRES — In a move widely seen as a government crackdown on press freedom in Peru, investors with close ties to President Alberto Fujimori on Friday seized control of a Lima-based television station that had broadcast reports exposing government wrongdoing.

An appeals court granted management control of Frecuencia Latina TV to minority shareholders, Samuel and Mendel Winter, after Fujimori's government revoked the citizenship of the station's majority owner, Baruch Ivcher, an Israeli-born businessman.

The crusading station became the focal point of a political crisis when the government stripped Ivcher of his citizenship in July. The action appeared to be retaliation for investigative reports that exposed torture and corruption in the military and illegal wiretapping by Peru's national intelligence agency.

The government asserted there had been "administrative irregularities" in the processing of Ivcher's application for Peruvian citizenship, which was granted in 1984. Under Peruvian law, foreigners are barred from holding a majority share in local media companies.

Early Friday morning, the Winter brothers, accompanied by police and a judge, entered the fortified offices of Frecuencia Latina. They were met by a group of journalists who tendered their resignations.

The Winter brothers, who own a large chocolate factory, a lottery and other business interests in Peru, are strong supporters of Fujimori and have expressed their desire to change the editorial focus of the station, which has a reputation for exposing corruption.

Free speech advocates condemned the takeover.

"Today's raid on Frecuencia Latina is the latest and most alarming episode of a concerted government campaign intended to punish journalists for doing their job," said a statement by William A. Orme Jr., executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York. "We join with our Peruvian colleagues in condemning this takeover, which calls into question the Peruvian government's commitment to press freedom."

In a telephone interview from Miami, where he fled in June after receiving death threats, Ivcher told a Peruvian television station Friday that his citizenship documents "were in order" and that the takeover of Frecuencia Latina was "a huge injustice."

Ivcher, who owns 54 percent of the station, vowed to continue fighting to regain his citizenship and control of the station.

The Associated Press in Lima said the two brothers ordered police to confiscate film from its photographer as they entered the TV station. Police later returned developed pictures from the film, but all the photos were blank.